Baseball Falls At SoCon Leader Davidson In Extra Innings

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DAVIDSON, N.C. – UNCG rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game in the top of the ninth Thursday, but Davidson scored a run in the bottom of the 11th to take the series opener between the teams 7-6 at Wilson Field.

UNCG (17-18, 4-8 SoCon) outhit Davidson (23-10, 13-3 SoCon) 13-8, marking the 23rd time this season the Spartans have reached double figures in hits in a contest.

Senior LHP Dylan Hathcock (0-1) (Tampa, Fla./Gaither) suffered the loss despite throwing a strong 2.2 innings in relief. He did not give up a hit but walked two batters and recorded four strikeouts. Ryan Lowe (2-1) picked up the win for the Wildcats, pitching two innings while giving up just one hit.

A trio of UNCG players notched three hits in the game in senior Sean Guite (Huntington Beach, Calif./Irvine Valley CC) and juniors Zac MacAneney (Gibsonville, N.C./Virginia Tech) and Hunter King (Mason City, Iowa/Northern Iowa Area CC). King also drove in a pair of runs and scored two runs himself. Junior Eric Kalbfleisch (Pilot Mountain, N.C./North Stokes) extending his hitting streak to 10 games with a base knock to become the fifth Spartan to produce a double-digit stretch of games hitting safely.

The top of the first started promising for UNCG as MacAneney singled up the middle and Guite doubled off the wall in left field. With the runners at second and third and no outs, the next three Spartan batters struck out swinging to terminate the threat. Davidson jumped on top with two outs in the bottom of the second as a bloop single to left center by Lee Miller plated two runs and gave the Wildcats a 2-0 advantage.

After UNCG cut the lead in half with a run in the top of the fourth, Davidson scored four times in the bottom of the frame to take a commanding 6-1 edge. The big blow in the inning was a two-out three-run double off the bat of David Daniels.

The runs kept coming in the fifth inning as the Blue and Gold used a two-run double by King and a RBI double by McDonald to cut into the Wildcat lead and shrink it to 6-4. The score would remain the same until the ninth inning.

Junior Tyler Long (Halifax, Va./Louisburg College) and MacAneney singled to lead off the frame and Guite followed with a single of his own to plate Long and make it a 6-5 contest. Kalbfleisch completed the comeback with a sacrifice fly to score MacAneney and forge a 6-6 deadlock. UNCG notched another hit in the inning but would not plate any further runs.

Hathcock, who came on in the eighth frame, was working on a scoreless outing until the bottom of the 11th came around. He struck out the first two batters but walked the next two. Freshman RHP Adam Swim (Greensboro, N.C./Northwest Guilford) came on in an attempt to get the final out, but Forrest Brandt hit a sharp single up the middle for the winning hit.